Abstract

A new genus of the family Desmodoridae, Cornurella gen. n. is described from a Campos Basin sea site, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It differs from the other genera of the family by the clearly annulated body cuticle, ornamented with eight longitudinal rows of spines, a strong cephalic capsule with thorn-like ornamentation; amphideal fovea closed loop-shaped in both sexes but slightly smaller in female and located on a cuticular plate; precloacal region in male with setae and papillae intermingled; spicules long filiform and curved and gubernaculum without dorsal apophyses. The new genus was considered most closely related to Desmodorella because both genera share the strong cuticular annulations of the body wall and ornamentation with longitudinal rows of spines, but differs in the number of rows and the well-defined cephalic capsule ornamented with a dorsolateral pair and a ventrolateral pair of horn-like protrusions at its base. Other similarities between both genera are the sexual dimorphism in amphideal fovea and the presence of one dorsal and two ventro-sublateral teeth.

Keywords

CornurellaDesmodoridae Desmodorinae Brazil

This article is registered in ZooBank under urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:CAA481E5-5DE9-43 BC-AE82-B8BD45584B52.

Notes

Acknowledgements

The present study is part of the multidisciplinary environmental research project “Campos Basin Environmental Heterogeneity – HABITATS”, the main objective of which is to characterize physically, chemically and biologically the different environments on the continental margin of the Campos Basin, southeast Atlantic. We would like to express gratitude to PETROBRAS for sampling and providing the material for taxonomic study. We would also like to thank MSc. Alexandre Lacerda de Larrázabal-Filho for help in picture preparation and Dr. Janet W. Reid, JWR Associates, for her critical revision of the English text. André Morgado Esteves (CNPq 305516/2016-7) acknowledges a research fellowship from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).

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